Some feedback and random thoughts

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mewian
Voyager
Voyager
Posts: 2

Some feedback and random thoughts

Post by mewian »

I've been playing Horizon for about ~30 hours for now. I haven't finished a game yet as I keep losing my interest with micromanaging increasingly large empires, but overall I've been mostly enjoying the experience.

At this point I thought I'd register to provide some feedback. Can't promise that it's particularly useful but here we go:

- Combat can sometimes be very tedious, mainly because of the work involved in moving, turning and positioning the ships. Having the transient trait makes it slightly better, but not by much.
It also doesn't help in combat that the perspective seems a bit wonky which makes it difficult to tell if you're on top of a planet or not. Also some of the smaller ships can be difficult to see especially when they're on top of something else.

- Research screen is very empty and depressing especially in start of the game. I sort of like it that you're locked away from technologies that you don't possess, but it would be less discouraging if you had the unknown techs greyed out or hidden behind a row question marks instead of being omitted completely. You know, just to let people know that there is more to be discovered.
I also wouldn't mind some sort of "convert all research points into discover something new chance" button somewhere.

- Nice things like stargates and planet beam defences being available only by being lucky with archaeology sites is sort of nice idea in theory, but in practice means that you have to make a mad rush with exploration, which I'm not particularly fond of.

- Economy seems quite broken. It's very easy to have an absurd amount of income which lets you instantly buy upgrades for even the most hopeless planets that you colonised on last turn. Unless you're intentionally gimping yourself, large enough empire can buy a ship on every planet on every turn, and it just doesn't feel right.

- It would be really, really nice if the galactic map had some kind of clear visual indicators for following things:
1). Whether or not the system is fully surveyed.
2). If there is a ship in the system waiting for orders.
3). System contains items of interest such as ruins or resources.


Then some little things:

- Still don't know how the stargates work.

- If there is some sort of auto-explore option then I haven't discovered it yet.

- Being occasionally shown alien flybys on the combat screen is a bit confusing and sometimes I get accused of destroying alien ships when I clearly wasn't the aggressor. Never quite know what's going on there.

- A lot of the time when colonising multiple worlds on same turn and in same system the game crashes. I can't spot any particular pattern in this aside from that.

- I couldn't see the differences between difficulty settings explained in the manual. Perhaps I didn't look hard enough?

- Pretty sure manual mentions wormholes but I've never seen one. Do they exist?

- I think having cloaking technology should also provide ability to see through other races cloaks, or at least there should be some sort of counter to them in place like enhanced sensors or sensor arrays.

- There doesn't appear to be much difference between engine, reactor and armour types, which is a bit disappointing.

- I'd love to have more random events. So far I've seen only 2 different ones?

- I love the little videos that play when you meet a new race or colonise a world, but there's only so many times you want to see them before you start wishing for an option to disable them.

- And finally, where's my stellar converter?


This all said, I feel that for all its flaws, Horizon has enormous potential and I sincerely hope that you keep working it, even if it means pushing out some dlc or something to fund it.
There's some serious competion coming out this year, but don't let that or the mixed reviews discourage you.

Grogger
Dev. Team
Dev. Team
Posts: 79

Re: Some feedback and random thoughts

Post by Grogger »

Hi mewian,

There are many good suggestions here, thank you for taking the time to provide us with detailed feedback and encouraging words!

By the way, you can disable the 'Race encounter cut-scenes' through the game options (General tab). These are the videos you see when encountering a race.

Khanti
Voyager
Voyager
Posts: 3

Re: Some feedback and random thoughts

Post by Khanti »

About keeping losing interest with micromanaging:

Where is a button for colonizer "refresh at nearest starbase"? I am really tired of
1) sending them down
2) moving to orbit of starbase
3) checking if they are refilled

Any auto would be helpful (for a game with non-destroyable colonizers).

Wenla
Citizen
Citizen
Posts: 37

Re: Some feedback and random thoughts

Post by Wenla »

At least there should be some kind of icon to show that a star system have a starbase. Easier to find out where you can 'refresh'.
You have to have a vision before you can define your strategy

Daggath
Voyager
Voyager
Posts: 6

Re: Some feedback and random thoughts

Post by Daggath »

Khanti wrote:About keeping losing interest with micromanaging:

Where is a button for colonizer "refresh at nearest starbase"? I am really tired of
1) sending them down
2) moving to orbit of starbase
3) checking if they are refilled

Any auto would be helpful (for a game with non-destroyable colonizers).
For #3 If you want a bit more realism of the colonists using the ship to start the new outpost.
Before you start a new game, under Options there you can check "Destroy Colonizer on use".
Least this way you don't have to check each one to see if it is ready as you have to build them to use them.